BOULDER — The Buffs were about to be on the doorstep of bowl eligibility, and one win from checking off a major milestone in Deion Sanders’ transformative program overhaul.
That is, until they blew a 29-point halftime lead in one of the most shocking losses in program history, an epic collapse that saw CU fall to Stanford in double-OT at Folsom Field, 46-43.
“I’m truly upset and truly disturbed,” a stunned Coach Prime said. “We finally put it together in the first half like the players desired… Then we come out and surrender four unanswered touchdowns to start (the second half). I can’t fathom it or wrap my head around it.
“Big win by them, horrible loss by us.”
Instead of sitting at 5-2 heading into the second half of the season with a gust of momentum, the Buffs spiraled with a disastrous second half on Friday to fall to 4-3 after suffering the largest blown lead in program history. Stanford roared back thanks to an unstoppable performance from wideout Elic Ayomanor, who finished with 13 catches for a program-record 294 yards and three TDs.
“We’re gonna take this one on the chin because we deserve it,” Sanders said. “From youth on, I don’t remember being up 29-0 and losing a football game. So this is really tough for me.”
Ayomanor’s play and Stanford’s second-half surge negated the return of CU two-way star Travis Hunter, who scored a pair of TDs, as well as three first-half TDs from wideout Xavier Weaver. CU also repeatedly shot itself in the foot with 17 penalties for 127 yards.
Now, there’s big questions about how CU can get two more wins following next week’s bye. None of the Buffs’ wins so far have come against an opponent currently above .500. They’ll be underdogs to UCLA at the Rose Bowl on Oct. 28, then host Oregon State and Arizona before finishing on the road at Washington State and Utah.
To get back to the postseason, CU will have to flush a disastrous collapse that Sanders said confirmed the Buffs are “not built for the moment right now.”
“Right now, we’re not built for the moment where we have to make a play, or keep contain, or make a block or get another yard,” Sanders said. “We’re just not.”
The Buffs boat-raced Stanford in the first half. The only time Stanford stopped CU’s offense in the first half was when Alejandro Mata missed a 46-yard field goal with 49 seconds left in the second quarter. Before that, CU scored on its first four drives as Shedeur Sanders & Co. diced through the Cardinal defense with ease.
Sanders’ 38-yard run set CU up in plus territory on the Buffs’ opening drive, which was capped by Weaver’s 9-yard TD grab. On the next drive, Hunter registered his first TD as a Buff when he took Sanders’ pass, hit the spin-cycle move to send Stanford’s Tristan Sinclair grasping at air, and then out-ran two other Cardinal players to the pylon.
Hunter celebrated with a prayer/meditative gesture, and was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for excessive celebration. It appeared the rout was on, but it was just a red herring.
Weaver reeled in a 39-yard TD reception on the next drive, and the Buffs started pouring it on with a successful two-point conversion. Later in the second quarter, Weaver strutted into the end zone on a well-timed 14-yard reverse dialed up by offensive coordinator Sean Lewis. The Stanford defense looked lost in the first half but especially on that play, when there wasn’t a white jersey with 10 yards of Weaver or his brigade of blockers.
But everything changed in the second half, when it was the Buffs who looked lost as they continued to commit bad penalties to ease the Cardinal’s comeback attempt.
The Cardinal got on the board with a TD drive on their first possession of the third quarter to make it 29-6. On Stanford’s next drive, Ashton Daniels found Ayomanor for a 97-yard TD pass after Omarion Cooper slipped in coverage. Another failed-two point conversion followed.
“That was flat-out ridiculous,” Deion Sanders said of Ayomanor’s first TD. “That’s when all the foolishness started… Our secondary did not play the best game, especially the cornerback position.”
Ayomanor then reeled in another 60-yard TD, burning Hunter in coverage in the process, and suddenly the score was 29-19 and the stadium quieted as the Cardinal went from shutout to in the game in the span of 3 minutes, 46 seconds.
Hunter then got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct on third down that turned a fourth-and-22 (and 48-yard field goal attempt) into an automatic first down in the red zone. That resulted in Justin Lamson’s 1-yard TD run a few plays later, cutting Stanford’s deficit to three.
But Sanders and the offense answered the bell. A 48-yard grab by Weaver set CU up, then Hunter snagged a 16-yard TD pass in traffic, getting crunched in the process. That pushed the score to 36-26 with 11:18 left.
After the Cardinal scored again on another Daniels TD pass, Stanford got the ball back at their own 1-yard-line with 2:55 left. Daniels drove Stanford down the field and repeatedly targeted Ayomanor, who was covered by Hunter. But the CU star held up, and Stanford settled for Joshua Karty’s 46-yard attempt as time expired to force overtime.
Javon Antonio’s 4-yard TD on the opening possession of OT put the Buffs up 43-36. But Ayomanor had another response, beating Hunter in man coverage again on a 30-yard highlight TD catch that Ayomanor pinned against the back of Hunter’s helmet.
After Sanders threw an interception in the second OT, Karty’s 31-yard field goal ended the game and sent the stunned black-and-gold fans streaming for the exits.
“He should’ve never thrown the ball,” Sanders said of his son’s interception. “(As for Hunter), there’s some plays he made, there’s some plays he didn’t. It just so happens the plays he didn’t make at the end are magnified. But the plays he made kept us in the game.”
